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Published: 6 November 2016
Publisher: BookBaby
Category: Young Adult/Thriller
This ain’t no ordinary high school. Trapped in a room of clever lies, unlikely confessions, and a whole lotta lip, the only way to escape is by uncovering the truth. Four walls, two voices, one chance. Who is the woman behind the wall? Solve the puzzle. Save the boy. This is Detention Land.
With access to Roger’s private journals, the reader is transported into the detention room, watching as it unravels, brick by brick, piece by piece. Inspired by true events, Detention Land is a contemporary classic that will keep you guessing until the very last page.
Rating: DNF
This book sounded like it would be really engaging. I’ve read books before where the reader is given bits of the same puzzle the characters are trying to solve, to see if they could solve it first. When the summary for Detention Land gave hints that it would be very much like this, trying to figure out why the main character Roger is locked in a barbaric detention room, I thought I’d give it a try.
I had to DNF this book at 43% because it was so frustratingly boring. Roger was an aggravating character. I would’ve understood if this was a reaction to being in the detention room, but then there were journal entries that just made me dislike him more. In the detention room scenes I got the feeling that Roger might be a bully on the outside, though there were a couple of sentences that offered a glimmer of redemption for him. However, these were once again countered by the journal entries were he revealed a manipulative personality that I disliked reading intensely.
I’m all for unlikable characters (Joe from You, The Darkling from the Shadow & Bone series) but there also has to be something about them that makes me want to know what happens next to them, to find out more about their story. Roger is nowhere near either of these characters and I did not care to read to the end to find out one more iota of information about him.
I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Agh DNF’ing is always disappointing! I hope your next read is better. 😭 I also really hate reading about purely unlikeable characters…like how are we supposed to stay engaged if there’s not a single redeeming thing about them!? 😱
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Exactly! I mean, I’m all for an unlikable person (Ronan, Kaz, Lada), but there’s still something about each of those characters that endears me to them.
I’m not doing too bad with DNFs this year, luckily. Two or three, I think? Out of 80 odd books, that’s not bad.
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